wings
by Merle's
Summary: copdoc week day one: title says it all, ficlet based on the prompt "wings"


It takes Lauren some time to notice it — or, at least, to determine what exactly it is about Tamsin's behaviour that unsettles her. Of course it's more than obvious that the Valkyrie has changed, ever since she gained her adult appearance back. That she holds herself differently, that her eyes aren't downcast that often anymore, that her lips curve in such a way her harsh, biting smiles develop a lingering, much softer edge, all of that is more than self-evident. But there's something else, something she can't quite place in the beginning.

The first time Lauren senses it, barely at the periphery of her vision, it's in the Dal. They're once more chewing over the whole Kenzi situation, and it's Tamsin's turn to fetch the drinks. It's been weeks since Kenzi was ripped out of their middle. The initial shock and pain and the general aftermath has subsided, and given way to a much deeper, darker persistence. They'd get her back, no matter the costs, Bo was absolutely one hundred percent clear about this.

There's been a time when Bo refused to leave the house, nearly starved herself until the succubus burst out, roaring louder than ever before. Then Bo would vanish for twelve hours or so, and come back hurting even more than before. Dyson and Tamsin developed different coping mechanisms. The shapeshifter spent more time as wolf than as a human, it seemed, desperately trying to pick up Kenzi's scent, to find a trace that could lead to her, for days at a time oblivious to the fact that he wasn't helping whatsoever.

Of the three Fae, the Valkyrie has been the most sensible. In the duration of single nights Tamsin has pored over more books than Lauren had ever seen her with. She knew already more about Valhalla than Trick, Bo, Dyson and Lauren combined, but the cold determination that drives her these days kept her in the archives from dusk til dawn, at Lauren's side, desperately looking for clues they might have overlooked, and a bottle of Jack Daniels always in her reach. If she wasn't buried in ancient paper scrolls, she boxed and kicked the hell out of the punching bags at the gym. It was a strange sight, seeing her with badly taped and bruised knuckles sitting in the Dark's archive, piles of open books around her, often with nothing more than a simple candle to illuminate the pages, reading like her life depended on it.

Lauren spent the first few weeks biting down her own emotions. Compartmentalizing. Trying to get food and water into the Fae.

When Bo finally leaves the house again, with the ever growing determination to kill her own father for what he did to Kenzi, they end up meeting at the Dal almost every day. Lauren doesn't really know where their relationship stands, and if she's honest, she finds herself left without much willingness to follow her. No matter which way she turns, there will always be something between her and Bo, be it Lauren's ties to the Dark,

Until Kenzi is back, Bo is in no state to think about mending her relationship with Lauren, or anyone else for that matter. And Lauren is okay with that. She can wait.

Patience has always been one of her strong suits.

But she can focus on supporting Bo and her plans. And for once, Tamsin is definitely on their side.

So they're sitting in one of the booths in the back of the Dal, discussing once more where they could get more information on Valhalla, or how to break into it, to be specific.

And it's Tamsin's turn to get the next round of drinks. She's on her way back to them, with one hand balancing a tray with beer for Dyson and Bo, a shot of whiskey for herself, and tap water for Lauren. It's about half past six, the human hasn't had lunch today and definitely no intention of getting drunk. Her eyes follow the Valkyrie absentmindedly as she makes her way back to them through the crowded bar, when someone nearly stumbles into her. The Fae runs into one of the pool tables, but she stops dead in her tracks, gracefully saving the drinks on her tray without spilling a single drop.

And then she ducks under one of the wooden planks connecting the ceiling with the walls. The thing is, though, that even though she's taller than Lauren, Tamsin is still several inches short of that angular board above her head.

Lauren narrows her eyes. A heartbeat later Tamsin upright again, shoulders back and spine straight, and strolls over to their booth. She slumps down next to Dyson. He and Bo next to Lauren are discussing animatedly whether it'd be any use to blackmail a Lupercus into telling them whether he's heard anything about the Wanderer in the last few years. Lauren isn't really listening, instead her eyes are still fixed on Tamsin, and when the Valkyrie slides the glass of water over to her, she sends her a crooked smile and a cocked eyebrow alongside it. Her knee nudges Lauren's gently underneath the table. "You alright?" she asks, and Lauren smiles, nods, and tries to concentrate again on the matter at hand.

A few more instances like that happen. In the gym, for example – at some point, and no one can really remember when, Lauren got into the habit of picking up the Valkyrie after her early morning training so they can drive to the Dark's vast library together. Lauren walks in because Tamsin isn't picking up her phone, it's probably on silent mode or the Valkyrie is too immersed in her workout. The human follows the only sound in the empty gym, the heavy thuds of Tamsin's fists against the leather punching bag. When she sees the Valkyrie and calls her name, Tamsin takes a few steps away from the punching bag before she turns around. It swings softly behind her back, her green eyes meet Lauren's, and something clicks in the doctor's head.

Tamsin's teeth close around the tape she's wrapped around her fingers, about to tear it off, and while Lauren watches a single drop of sweat travelling down the expanse of Tamsin's neck, Lauren realizes what's bee bothering her.

Since she's begun her last life Tamsin leaves space for her wings.

Whether she's being patched up by Lauren – that happens more and more now that they're both Dark -, or pretending to build her relationship with Dyson, in the Dal or occasionally at Bo's place when she wasn't fast enough to find a good excuse to say no to Bo's invitations, she's always keeping a few paces between her backside and the nearest wall or couch or person, unless she's sitting down. And even if she's slouching on a couch, or lying sprawled out on the floor of the archives, she prefers to be on her stomach, with her shoulder blades far away from any confinement besides her tight shirt.

There's always enough space behind her to accommodate a pair of wings.

Lauren just swallows, though, and doesn't mention it, even if she'd love to ask the Valkyrie about her wings. So far she's just heard stories by Bo and Dyson. Tamsin eyes her curiously, and the curve of her mouth twitches as if she's biting back a mocking comment about Lauren's staring, but she keeps silent while she waltzes past the human towards the showers.

"Gimme ten minutes and I'm all yours," she calls over her shoulder, and Lauren laughs to herself, and goes back to her car to wait for Tamsin and think about how little she actually knows about Valkyries. She might have to ask Dyson about it – with Tamsin all over her books it would be a bit awkward, reading one about norse gods right next to her, even if she could pretend to be looking for the Wanderer.

Bo is very happy to see those two, Tamsin and Dyson, together. Moving on, as she calls it.

Lauren isn't that convinced. She knows first-hand how hard it is to get over Bo – impossibly so. If she concentrates on it, she can still feel her hand tingle from slapping Tamsin.

Tamsin seems calm and relaxed around him, and they might be sleeping together, but Tamsin is about as far away from in love as humanly – well, faely – possible. If anything, they seem to find comfort in each other's company, and Lauren relishes in the fact that for once all of them seem to present a united front. Even if there's this extremely faint pull in the pit of her stomach whenever she seems Dyson with his arm on the armrest behind Tamsin.

Now she blames it on Tamsin inching away from his hand, maybe even unconsciously, because his elbow would be exactly where Lauren imagines Tamsin's wings emerging from her shoulder blades.

Considering the circumstances of her first time seeing them, Lauren would have been fine with not knowing how they look for a bit longer.

Because for once Bo should have listened, Dyson was right, and searching out the Lupercus was about the worst idea since Evony trying to trick the Dark into believing she's still Fae. That plan resulted in her leaving the country for an unknown amount of time, at least until she's got the ingredients of the serum Lauren might mix for her, to silence the human genes in her DNA again and switch on the Fae ones.

Meanwhile, Dyson and Bo are waiting for the Lupercus a few miles away, in the trap they've set for him, whereas Tamsin and Lauren have walked straight into his house to turn it upside down, looking for clues about the entry to Valhalla.

The thing is, though, he didn't take the stupid bait. On the contrary. The Lupercus is still at home. And right now he's staring at them, and they're staring at him, and Lauren could swear her heart is beating so loudly her ribcage is about to burst any second. She's still clutching her lock pick tools. When she stopped dead in her tracks, surprised by the Fae waiting for them in the middle of his living room, Tamsin nearly walked straight into her. She's so close to Lauren that the human can literally feel her breath on her neck.

A few endless seconds tick by, no one saying anything, eyes wide open and almost too stunned to exhale. The two women didn't plan for this. Dyson was absolutely sure that the Lupercus wouldn't resist a challenge of a shapeshifter. But he did, and now he's standing just a few steps away from Tamsin and Lauren in his own gigantic but shabby house, his territory and home advantage, while they didn't even think of bringing Tamsin's gun. And it seems like he's not a typical Fae in general.

He's holding a semiautomatic.

"Okay," Tamsin breathes finally and places her hand on Lauren's forearm, about to step around her, "this is not what it looks like."

"Oh, I think this is exactly what it looks like," he growls, and raises his gun.

All hell breaks loose.

Lauren feels her brain going in shock mode. She's just taking in and doesn't process anything any longer. Her eyes are taking random snapshots of what's happening around her, while the connection between her rationality and reality has been cut.

The next heartbeat Lauren is flying to the side, pushed out of harm's way by Tamsin, and the Valkyrie dives to the other side, behind a table. The gun nearly explodes with hammering bullets being shot in their direction. They hit the half open door, leaving ugly holes in the wood. Splinters whirl through the air. The noise of the gun, the Lupercus screaming at them, and wood and glass breaking all around them drown Lauren's brain in white noise. Her shoulder connects with the wall and she can feel a pang of pain shooting up her arm.

The Lupercus keeps the trigger pulled back and swings it around, aiming at Tamsin, who's fleeing from the table behind a couch, further into his living room and away from the door. Faintly, Lauren can make out her cursing as one of the table legs gives way and the whole thing crashes to the floor, alongside the shattering glasses and plates that had been on it.

Furiously, the Fae screams at them, going after the Valkyrie. Lauren tries to pick herself up, but fails, and sinks further to the floor. In the background a window shatters and she can hear the sound of glass shards hitting the wooden floor. But the Lupercus is still cursing them, and that's the one thing that matters, because it means that he hasn't hit Tamsin yet. Lauren bites her lip, rolls around and remembers that she left her jacket in her car – with her phone in its pocket.

She pulls herself together, presses her back against the wall and attempts one more to get up again, her right hand wrapped around her left arm. While she pushes herself up she can see Tamsin throwing something – a stone paperweight? – at the Lupercus, and the blaze of gunfire lapses into silence for a second or two. Whatever she used as a projectile, it forces the Fae to duck sharply, and gives her the opportunity to jump over the couch and crouch behind an armchair.

Across the room, her stormy green blue eyes meet Lauren's, and bore into hers. Lauren hasn't seen them this intense since her palm connected with Tamsin's cheek. It's less predatory this time, less greedy, and brimming with something else. Equally burning, though. Her jaw is clenched, and Lauren's stomach drops when she sees a faint red mosaic splattered across her cheek.

"_Run!_" Tamsin yells, her voice cutting through the mist covering Lauren's ears. "Run, Lauren, get out of here!"

Lauren reacts immediately. She's two steps closer to the door and her mind focused on getting that damn phone before she realizes that the gunfire has stopped once more. She throws a glance back, and time comes to a halt.

The tiny black hole is directed at her. Everything else fades away. It's just her and the metal shining in the sunlight that's streaming through the window behind him, and the Lupercus' finger, almost fondly, around the trigger, pulling it. The air rushes out of Lauren's lungs. There might have been a scream trapped in her, but it never reaches her lips, she's too focused on the barrel and the black nothingness at its end.

Lauren hands over to her reflexes. Her legs give way without her realizing it, and she dives to the floor without her hands having time to come up to ease the fall.

She can hear Tamsin screaming her name, and the hail of bullets flying over her head. They hit the wall behind her, creating a sudden cloud of dust and other particles suspended in mid-air above her head. The oxygen is pressed out of her lungs as her chest is pressed against the floor.

When it comes rushing back in, it clears her head again. She rolls around swiftly and takes cover behind the remains of the table. It's a horrible protection against gunfire, but better than nothing.

It takes her a moment or two to check herself and realize that she was fast enough. She dropped to the floor before anything could hit her. A wave of relief floods her, before the fear for Tamsin takes over again, and she peers around the wooden plate to get a better view at the rest of the room.

It's a horrible mess. More than half of it has been ripped apart by bullets. Papers and glass shards and splinters of wood cover the floor and the furniture.

Then she sees Tamsin and the second Fae, and realizes why he isn't shooting any longer.

Tamsin is in full Valkyrie mode.

Lauren sucks in her breath so sharply she nearly chokes on it.

Tamsin is a physically radiating presence in the room, hundreds - a few thousand - of years old and for a split second, before her rationality catches up with her again, Lauren believes that she can almost see how humanity came up with angels.

There's the remnants of what looks like the leg of a chair in Tamsin's hand. It would look almost comical since she's holding it like a sword, but Lauren is quite positive that Tamsin doesn't need it. Her stormy eyes are flickering around the edges, holding back the darkness that accompanies the skull whenever her Valkyrie comes out fully. Her voice has dropped to a hissing. She's speaking a language Lauren doesn't recognize, which does say something. The other Fae has sunk to one knee, visibly fighting against whatever it is she's using on him.

And then the wings erupt from her shoulders.

They're huge, impossibly bright and gloriously white and if Lauren looks closely she can see them quiver, rustling as if wind was playing with them. The movement of air reaches across the space that extends between them, and sends a shiver down her spine. Lauren wants nothing more than run her fingers through the feathers. There's a tremor in them, and a heartbeat later the human is pulled to her feet by her wish to touch and feel their expanse.

Lauren thinks of the greeks and their fondness for labyrinths and Icarus, and how this should be physically impossible, there's no way Tamsin's body can hide a pair of _wings_, and how a butterfly can cause a hurricane halfway around the globe – yes, that theory is flawed and Lauren knows it but _still_, it holds central merits - and, god, she doesn't want to know what that gorgeous pair of wings could set off.

Tamsin stretches them, flaps them once, and the second Fae goes fully to the ground. The tip of Tamsin's wings brush the ceiling. When she folds them back together, the longest primaries nearly sweep the floor. Lauren can hear the feathers rustle. Ever so slowly, the black skull Tamsin's face has turned into fades away again. Even if she tried to, the human can't force herself to look away from her, not for one second.

Tamsin's forehead creases. The smile that flickers across her face as soon as it's back to normal seems brittle, almost fragile.

Lauren gulps.

"Got nothing to say?"

"Woah," Lauren states simply.

Tamsin bursts out laughing, and her wings move softly while her body shakes with it. They stare at each other for a long time. For some reason Lauren can see how a weight is lifted off the Valkyrie's shoulders, as if she'd been afraid of Lauren's reaction. "I can work with that," Tamsin smirks, and allows her expression to light up with a real smile. Then the mischievous glint is back in her eyes. She tilts her head to the side, drawling "I could hardly think of a more inappropriate way to say this, but d'you want to touch them?"

Lauren bites her bottom lip and steps around the table. Her eyes are still glued to the endless white expanse that stretches out behind her back. Suddenly, the wings seem smooth and much less threatening than earlier. "Remind me to never piss you off again."

"Is that a yes?" Tamsin grins and watches her inch closer.

"Whether I'd like to touch them? Let me have a look at them first."

When she hears a sound from besides her right boot she realizes the mistake they've made. Distracted by Tamsin's wings, Lauren forgot completely about the Lupercus. And the fact that they never took the gun away from him. In less than a blink he has gained consciousness again – or perhaps he just kept quiet until now until he has the best chance.

In a flash the Valkyrie is back, and she' so angry if she listened closely, Lauren is sure she could hear thunder rumbling in the distance. But then sharp claws dig into her ankle, she's pushed aside again, and fire is reopened. This time Tamsin isn't fast enough.

_Fuck, _Tamsin tries to curse but there's only a wheezing and then rasping cough escaping her lips. She tastes metal and dust on the tip of her tongue. Her lungs are on the verge of collapsing; there's no oxygen reaching them besides all that ash. Something hits her knee and she's violently kicked to the floor. Suddenly there're glass shards under her hands and pressing against the side of her face. Something sticky trickles into her left eye.

A few more bullets buzz through the air, leaving a trail of red mist and white feathers swirling through the ground. _Fuck._

And then only darkness.

The next thing she knows are warm hands on her pulse point and a bright light shining straight into her left eye. Someone is checking her vitals.

Thank the gods, her wings are folded away again. It felt a bit like flashing her birthing suit at the doctor – and not in the way she imagined it.

Tamsin shakes her head, blaming the last thought on her injuries, and hisses immediately as a hot, piercing pain erupts in her chest.

"You're awake," Lauren murmurs softly.

Tamsin blinks and tries to get her voice to work. It does, on the third try. "Where am I?" She croaks, blinking into the light.

"Hospital wing," Lauren answers and chuckles, putting away the little flashlight. "Can you tell me what happened? I want to check for memory loss."

She's right. Tamsin is lying in a crisp white ER bed, loads of beeping machines around her. Lauren is in her lab coat, a stethoscope dangling around her neck. When Tamsin realizes that Dyson isn't here, a huge weight drops off her chest. Trying to figure out whether she could settle with him was a huge mistake on her part. Now she doesn't seem to be able to get rid of him, and feels horrible for it.

Lauren's guess about what Tamsin is thinking of is correct. "He's outside," she murmurs, her eyes darkening a shade, "I said you needed rest. Besides, he's not Dark. Back to my question: can you remember why you're here with me having to pull a bullet out of your third rib?"

Tamsin stares at her for two heartbeats, before she realizes what she's doing. Then she does her best to glare at the doctor. "The Lupercus," she growls. "I should have killed the bastard while I had the chance."

"Yes, probably."

"You're fault, doc. Shouldn't have distracted me."

Lauren's eyebrows rise to her hairline. "I distracted you?"

"Staring at me like you've seen the ghost of his holiness Albert Einstein himself."

The human's lips curve, she's obviously holding back a laugh, and looks so glad to see the Valkyrie joking again that Tamsin feels a peculiarly pleasant warmth spreading in her chest.

Lauren's head falls forward a bit, and she smiles at her hands.

The next blink Tamsin has to draw in a sharp breath. Her hand shoots forward, ignoring the pain it causes, and her fingers grasp Lauren's chin. The human freezes instantly. She might have stopped breathing altogether. Gingerly, Tamsin turns the human's head to the side so that the sunlight filtering through the curtains falls on her right cheek. It's barely visible, but it's there nonetheless, a cut spreading across her cheekbone to her ear. Tamsin hesitates briefly, then she reaches out and trails it with her free thumb. Lauren' skin feels warm and impossibly soft to her touch.

"You alright?" Tamsin whispers.

Lauren opens her mouth. When she mumbles a hoarse "yes" her lip brushes Tamsin's finger. Finally, she lifts her eyes and meets the Valkyrie's eyes head-on, a wild strength in her brown eyes the Fae hasn't expected to see. But when she does she's not surprised, not really. They remain like that for a few more seconds, and Tamsin feels the sudden overwhelming urge to run her finger further across Lauren's chin, maybe to touch her lips, or to bury her fingers in that impossibly golden hair of hers.

Tamsin's hand drops to her side again and for the first time since she woke up the Valkyrie looks away from the human.

Lauren clears her throat and runs her hand through her open hair.

"I'm sorry," Tamsin says finally.

"For what?"

"That you got hurt. It was my fault. I should have protected you."

Lauren draws in a deep breath, and then she's smiling softly, Tamsin can hear it in her voice. "No need to apologise, Tamsin, seriously. I made mistakes too, I left my phone in my car. We had a lot of bad luck."

Tamsin glances up again. "Sounds like we're back to normal, then."

The human's smile doesn't really waver, but it does get a tad more painful.

"You can be honest to me, doc, how bad is it?" Tamsin drawls in response, her finger waving up and down her body in the hospital bed.

"Well," Lauren mocks back, "you're not going to die. But it was close."

"Close?"

"I don't want to brag, but if I hadn't rushed you to our ER and removed the bullet myself, you'd still be unconscious, in much more pain and it'd probably scar." Then her voice turns softer. "But you were never in serious danger. I don't know what happened exactly, but the wings shielded you against the worst."

Tamsin nods, and tears her eyes away from Lauren's lips where they had somehow dropped to while the doctor was speaking. Her wings are safely put away again, probably healing already. Living your last life can have its merits. Then another thought hits her. "Wait," she says, suddenly confused, "what happened after he shot me? How did you get out of there?"

Lauren shrugs nonchalantly. "I thought you were bleeding to death. I found something to hit him over the head with."

"'Scuse me?"

"A paperweight or something. But don't worry, I didn't kill him, he's next door, unconscious and chained to his bed."

Tamsin whistles. "You're even worse than the ruthless Machiavellian I thought you were. You remember me not to piss _you_off."

Lauren laughs, and Tamsin can feel the warmth in her chest radiate until it's tingling in her fingertips. Must be the meds.

"Does that offer still hold?" Lauren asks innocently.

"Touching me?" Tamsin smirks. "Ask me nicely."


End file.
